Bliss, Lauren Myracle

Myracle, Lauren (2008).
Bliss
New York: Amulet Books
978-0810970717
Genre: Horror Fiction

Having grown up in a California commune, Bliss sees her aloof grandmother's Atlanta world as a foreign country, but she is determined to be nice as a freshman at an elite high school, which makes her the perfect target for Sandy, a girl obsessed with the occult.
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Fourteen-year-old Bliss moves in with her conservative grandmother when Bliss’ hippie parents seek refuge in Canada from Nixon’s policies. Raised on a commune, Bliss has never used perfumed shampoo or watched television, so her grandmother’s life in Atlanta seems foreign and glamorous at the same time. Bliss cannot wait to start the elite prep school her grandmother has chosen if only to make a friend her own age, and she secretly wonders… will the people be like those on her favorite TV show- The Andy Griffith Show? Myracle creates a naïve young girl who is soon lost amid the catty and superficial girls (from Rhymes with Witches) and the overwhelming campus with its rules and expectations. Bliss, sensitive to the supernatural, immediately hears a creepy voice of a girl who died on campus. Bliss simultaneously befriends some pseudo-popular girls as well as outcast Sandy, who just happens to be obsessed with the occult and death of the student. The novel is set in the 1970s, which may put off some readers, but Myracle includes quotes from the Andy Griffith Show as well as the Tate-La Bianca murder trial (Charles Manson is especially creepy), which foreshadow the action of each chapter and may intrigue some readers. Myracle includes racial issues (and a subplot of the star black athlete secretly dating the white it girl), class issues, prom drama, and the flip of unpopular to popular within months that can only happen in high school fiction. As Bliss matures, she maintains her ideals, witnesses a death at the prom and refuses to offer her blood as sacrifice for Sandy and the ghost that haunts the school.